Charmed: The New Three
by R Lynn
Summary: Wyatt & Chris have to watch their sister Melinda while mom and dad are on a cruise, this includes keeping demons from killing her which is harder than it sounds. To top it off they have now become the new Charmed Ones all by Melinda's doing.Gee thanks sis
1. 1x01 Like a Child

Everything was quiet. Not just your average quiet, no this was an eerie silence. One of those situations void of any sound that sometimes can be just a loud as an alarm to tell you something is wrong. It's when your sixth sense kicks in and you get the strong feeling of terror and want to back out and run for your life, even though you don't even know what is following you yet. And as much as you want to run, you find that you are totted to the ground as if you had been growing there your entire life. Even the slightest little breath or hint of a sound sends your heart racing until the silence is filled with the beat of your own heart. That's exactly how Melinda felt at this very moment. She couldn't see two inches in front of her face but she knew she wasn't alone in the room. To prevent herself from bumping into anything she didn't dare move, not wanting to scare whoever or whatever it was away. Melinda drew in a deep breath and held it to calm herself and steady the beating of her heart. There was a small crash, a dish breaking on the floor somewhere near the dining room or the kitchen. Problem was Melinda was in the parlor and would have to go through a few rooms, dodge some furniture in order to get there probably just in time to realize that whatever it was had moved on. Instead Melinda stood there silently, trying to form some sort of plan in her head arguing with herself over each one. At this moment she wished that Wyatt and Chris were here, of course she could call for them together they would be able to take on whatever was in the manor. Then again, this could be her chance, Melinda's one chance to show her older brothers that she was no longer a baby and could handle the demon, warlock, or dark lighter. Naturally Melinda's mind raced over the different scenarios in case it was actually one of those three. Then again, just a demon didn't narrow down the scenario enough for it to actually play over in her mind. If it was a demon what kind was it? Big, small, human in form, or some kind of hideous monster with sharp claws that had a poison to them?

With the next crash, again from the kitchen or dining area, Melinda realized she couldn't stand here and do nothing for much longer. Wait, what if she just orbed to the kitchen? Then again the power was out, and orbing without being able to see what kind of creature and possible demon may be around you wasn't a very smart idea. Before Melinda could change her thoughts over, there were sounds of fast footsteps across the floor on the other side of the house and they were coming closer. In a flash Melinda felt something brush across her arm lightly and the next second she was flying through the air hitting the opposite wall and landed crashing down to the small table she knew sat there with a pot of flowers and an antique doily. She pushed her self up off the ground, as soon as she stood up the creature flew at her again and grabbed her by the neck with it's hand of four claws pushing her hard against the wall. Melinda struggled against it's grip, and in panic didn't think of orbing out until after it took her from the wall and proceeded to throw her into the front hall. Melinda could blood trickling down her neck, the claws had cut her a little, but there was no burning sensation that would lead her to believe they were poisonous. What the demon was it was clear it could see in the dark, otherwise how would it have been able to see Melinda in the pitch-black room with the curtains drawn so to not let the streetlights to flood the window. She heard the demon shriek and hiss as it came at her again, any second now it would be on her. With a stroke of luck Melinda saw two figures orb in and the familiar voice of her brother Chris spoke.

"Why are all the lights off?"

"Wyatt! Chris!" Melinda gasped and tried to warn them of the demon but it was too late, Wyatt and Chris were knocked backward into the front doors by the demon. The next moment the lights flickered back on in the entire manor and the three siblings were left alone in the front hall, their new demon friend no where to be seen. Wyatt and Chris picked themselves up confused about what just happened, they looked over to their sister who was sitting on the floor a few feet away holding her neck, hand covered in blood.

"Melinda, what hell just happened?" Wyatt asked, "Oh my god are you okay?" as he and Chris both rushed to help her to feet. Melinda winced a little as Chris gently pulled her hand away to examine the wound.

"I'm fine, it just scratched me that's all."

"Yeah okay, but what the hell were you doing?" Wyatt asked placing his hands a few inches from her neck and healed the gash.

"We're gone for three hours come back and you're here getting your ass kicked by a demon. It was a demon wasn't it?"

"What else would it have been Chris?" Melinda said annoyed, she walked away from her brothers and headed to the kitchen to wash her hand off. Wyatt and Chris both hurried after her,

"What did it look like, did you see it?" asked looking to Chris who shook his head.

"I don't know I couldn't see it. I was just sitting there reading a book, when all of a sudden the lights go out on me, just as I was getting to the good part too."

"Melinda this is serious." Chris said crossing his arms.

"Everything is serious to you." Melinda scoffed turning off the faucet and reaching for a towel.

"Melinda reality check here, you were just attacked, inside the manor by an unknown and unseen demon. That by the way is pretty strong."

"Chris it was just a scratch and besides Wyatt healed me, no major damage done, end of story."

"Melinda. I don't think you understand how serious this is. A demon entered the manor, and somehow cut the power or drained it which seems more likely seeing as how it was restored after it left. Not to mention attacked you, we don't even know if it had some kind of poison to go along with that scratch, short term or long term--"

"Wyatt!" Melinda said raising her voice in order to catch her brother's attention, "Listen to yourself. Both of you, worrying about every little detail. I understand that the whole demon breaking into Halliwell manor is a big deal, but it's happened before right? And look at me I'm fine okay so let's just focus on something besides me."

"Melinda this is the third personal attack on you this month alone." Chris said, "I don't think this is something to over look."

Melinda cracked a smile and scoffed, but after receiving a serious stare from each of her brothers, those type of "I'm dead serious" looks. The smile faded from Melinda's face, "You're not suggesting that I'm just like some sort of demon magnet?"

"More likely that someone in the underworld had a price on your head."

"That's ridiculous Wyatt, why would they come after me and not you two?"

"Cause you're the weakest of the three of us." Chris said, to which he received a rightful smack across his right arm from Wyatt.

"Excuse me?" Melinda's mouth dropped at Chris's comment, grant he was true but it's not like Melinda wanted to hear it. "I am not weak."

"He didn't mean it like that Mel. What he means is, you're the youngest, more vulnerable than the two of us." Wyatt said trying to make what Chris said hurt a little less. Either way you spun it, Chris and Wyatt's reasons were one and the same in the end. It all meant that Wyatt and Chris were superior to her making her the baby once again. Melinda starred at her brothers in disbelief and threw the towel down into the sink and stormed out of the room without saying another word to them. Wyatt sighed and rolled his eyes, "Mel, we didn't mean it personally. You're not weak, Mel!" he called up the stairs after her. Chris stood back in the archway from the dining room to the front hall. The door to Melinda's room slammed shut above them, Wyatt turned to Chris. "Nice job."

"Don't act like you didn't do anything." Chris said, "What you said was just a nicer version of what I said."

"Maybe I should try and say something--"

"You think she's going to let you in, please we'll be lucky if she even acknowledges our presence in the next century. Oh and don't try orbing, it makes it worse. Dad tried it with me once, I don't think I talked to him for a week after that."

Wyatt looked up the steps and let out a frustrated sigh and sat down on the stairs. He placed his head in his hands, "What are we going to do? It's clear that someone, or something is after her. And we can't be around her all the time, I mean we have other demons to worry about." Chris opened his mouth to speak but before he could get a word out Wyatt continued, "And if you're going to suggest we take her with us the answer is no. She's not old enough yet, she just turned 18, I don't want her facing these things yet. I mean, Mom and Dad won't want her out demon hunting." Wyatt added trying to cover up his concern. He did worry about Melinda a lot, and with their parents out of the house it fell on his head as the oldest to look after Melinda, even Chris and make sure they didn't end up dead.

Chris scoffed, "Actually I was going to suggest we try and get her a whitelighter. Think about it, Melinda can't heal yet, orbing is still causing her problems." That was true, Melinda always had a hard time when it came to her powers. Wyatt was still a baby when he could orb, and Chris was just as young when he was able to. But Melinda, well her powers liked to come and go for some reason. Orbing called for her to concentrate hard, which shouldn't be the case. "We can't always be orbing back to protect her, a whitelighter is a perfect solution. You can't disagree with me there."

Wyatt looked at Chris for a minute thinking it over. Chris did have a point, with the two of them off now and then fighting demons it only seemed logical to leave someone who was able to aid Melinda when necessary. Chris stood there with the face expression that had "you know I'm right" written all over it.

Meanwhile Melinda stomped angrily back and forth in her room, the room that used to belong to her aunt Phoebe years ago. Paige's room now belonged to both Wyatt and Chris, which was interesting when the two were fighting. The past couple of weeks her parents room lay empty, her parents along with her aunts and uncles were off on a cruise. Something they much needed which lead to Wyatt and Chris taking over the demon hunting and control for a while. Their cousin's were at their own homes with assorted babysitters. Seeing as how Wyatt was 23 and Chris 22, it didn't really call for Melinda to have a babysitter. Although her brothers were treating her like a baby, at least in Melinda's eyes. With a disgruntled yell she began to vent out loud directing her attention to the large worn teddy bear on her bed, hers since she was a baby. The obvious irony being that as much as she hated being treated like a kid, Melinda still held onto the one piece of her childhood and constantly released her anger to it instead of taking to writing in a journal.

"I'm sick of it Ronald!" yes, the old dirty thing even had a name. "Every time anything goes wrong it's always 'You should have been more careful Melinda. This is serious Melinda.' I'm not serious about being a witch? Maybe I would be more 'serious' if they started to treat me like the adult that I am and not some lost little 10 year old child!" Melinda flopped down on her bed, grabbing her pillow and placing it over her face she let out a scream muffled by the feathers inside. After she finished she tossed the pillow aside and starred up at her ceiling. "It's not just them you know." she muttered with a side glance to the bear Ronald. "Mom and Dad do it too. Every time I try to mention working on my magic mom always and I mean always finds a way to change the subject. It's starting to get ridiculous. I mean how can they expect me to grow up if they keep treating me this way."

Melinda rolled over on her side and took the bear in her arms and held it tight. She closed her eyes and tried to forget about the events that happened just about an hour prior. Inside Melinda knew that her brothers were just trying to look out for her, but she was just so angry at them at the moment that she couldn't make herself think clearly. If she could only have heard the conversation that went on below her, the plans being made by Wyatt and Chris alike. Something that would inevitably change the lives of the three Halliwell siblings forever.


	2. 1x02 Whitelighter Meets Witch

"Three days have passed and she won't so much as look at me." Wyatt said. He dunked a plate into the soapy water and proceeded to scrub the lasagna remnants off. It was the third night in a row that Melinda refused to speak to either of her brothers. She ate her dinner quietly ignoring the attempted conversation made by Wyatt at the table.

"She'll get over it, so why don't you get over it." Chris said from the other side of the kitchen, he leaned forward onto the island "The thing I'm more worried about is the demon that attacked her is still out there somewhere. We've checked the Book of Shadows over again and we've still come up with nothing."

"You don't get it." Wyatt said acting as if the subject change hadn't even occurred, "You and Mel have never gotten along, but this is me we're talking about. I don't think we've ever fought before." he stood there for a second to recall back in his mind, but he was right. As far as Wyatt knew, Melinda had never been mad at him before. She had always favored Wyatt over Chris, probably for the simple reason that Chris was always the one to pick on her when they were growing up. Wyatt dried the plate and set it aside on the counter and continued onto the next one. "You're supposed to be the bad guy, I'm the hero."

Chris rolled his eyes at Wyatt's disregard, "Please, can we focus on one problem at a time? And as far as I'm concerned the only problem we have is a dangerous unknown demon wandering around out there, with innocent lives at stake and Melinda's. Can we please, please save the teen drama for another time. Thank you."

Wyatt scoffed and shook his head slightly drying off the second plate and placing it on top of the last one. "You need to take a deep breath and calm down before you end up giving all of us a panic attack. You're too high strung sometimes, you know that?"

"You know what your problem is?" Chris said taking Wyatt's comment more personal then he should have. Wyatt set the silverware down and turned to face Chris, waiting to hear his analysis of him, thinking it would be good for at least a laugh. Before Chris could even get a syllable out the lights blinked out.

"Not good." Wyatt said, he couldn't see Chris directly but he could tell what kind of look was planted on his face. Their demon was back for a visit, the question was where was the tricky bastard? As if in an answer to the question going off in both of their heads, Melinda screamed from her room above followed by a crash. "Mel!" white orbs lit up the dark kitchen and were gone as soon as they came.

Melinda landed crashing to the floor in hallway, she figured she had landed on another table this time decorated with several picture frames. Her back hurt and burned a little, a piece of glass must have found it's way in. She had been sitting in her room listening to music when the power and lights cut off. Immediately Melinda knew what was going on and was on her way to tell her brothers when she was attacked. Melinda rolled over and winced in pain, "Okay, this is starting to get really old really fast."

She heard the demon's familiar shriek and hiss as it came at her again. Melinda couldn't tell exactly which direction is was coming from, she waited in terror for it to strike again. She could feel the breath of the demon on her, but before it struck a batch of white orbs materialized in front of her and the next thing she heard was the demon flying into the opposite end of the hallway followed by a white energy ball. It must have hit the demon because it shrieked in agony before the lights flickered back on signaling it's departure. Melinda sighed relieved and looked up expecting to see Wyatt or Chris kneeling down to help her up. It was no wonder that Melinda was a tad startled when a strange guy was there in her brother's places. He was handsome enough, with dark hair and blue gray eyes. Melinda's first thought was that yes, he was very attractive but her next thought was Who the hell was this? He held out her hand, "You alright?"

"Melinda?" Wyatt and Chris came running from Melinda's room, they had orbed there thinking the crash had come from inside her bedroom. They stopped when they noticed the guy but didn't seem at all surprised or even confused as Melinda did. Chris just sighed, upset that the demon had managed to escape once more. Wyatt looked at Melinda with concern but didn't seem as worried as Melinda would have hoped. Here was this stranger reaching out to her and her brother's weren't going to a thing. Speaking of the stranger, he still knelt there with his hand held out to her. "Who are you?"

The guy withdrew his hand and stood up, noticing the complete oblivious look on her face her turned to Wyatt and Chris. "You didn't tell her did you? She doesn't know?"

Wyatt and Chris exchanged looks and hesitantly shrugged pointing to one another in blame. Melinda sat there on the floor on top of the pile of broken wood and glass, "Tell me what?" she ignored the pain of the shard of glass sticking in her back. "What don't I know?"

The guy turned and forced a smile to his face, "I'm Michael, your whitelighter."

Wyatt and Chris braced themselves for the melt down that would more than likely occur. Melinda didn't cry out immediately like the two thought, instead she remained there her jaw dropped open in shock and horror. Wyatt smiled weakly, "Before you say anything Mel. Me and Chris--"

"I don't believe you two!" she interrupted getting to her feet the pain seemed far away replaced by anger and frustration. "You assigned me a whitelighter to baby-sit me?"

"Uh, excuse me. I'm no ones 'babysitter'." Michael said waving his hand in the air to get their attention. "I'm a whitelighter, guardian angel here to protect you. Not some person hired for the purpose of making sure you go to bed on time."

"Stay out of this!' Melinda said venomously to Michael causing him to recoil a little, taken back at her anger. She turned her attention back to Wyatt and Chris and stomped over to them, "I know what you're doing you don't think I can take care of myself!"

"No, that's not it. It's just with me and Chris being gone a couple times during the week, we can't just leave you here alone." of course this was just a drawn out way of saying, we need someone to watch you, to which Melinda immediately understood.

"He didn't mean it like that." Chris said cutting his sister off before she could continue, "We can't always be there to help you if you get in a situation like the other night or tonight. We want to make sure you're safe, and the only way to do that is to get you your own whitelighter."

"Excuse me, I'm not a dog or a fish." Michael huffed, first he was being referred to as a babysitter and now Chris was making it sound like he was some kind of pet they had just bought Melinda for her birthday. However she was being completely ungrateful, and Michael idly hoped that they would have to take him back. The others glanced back at him but ignored what he had to say and continued on fighting.

"It doesn't matter how you spin it Chris, the fact is you got me a whitelighter because you needed someone to watch me. You both think I'm such a kid that I can't take care of myself." the strain Melinda was putting on herself plus the wound in her back finally caught up with her. She trailed off at the end, sweating badly she swayed on her feet and stumbled forward. Wyatt caught her and for the first time any of them noticed the five inch shard of glass jetting out from Melinda's lower back. It was a miracle that the shard seemed to have missed all of her organs and nerves on the way in. She was only weak from the loss of blood, Michael stepped forward and pulled the shard quickly from her back. Melinda cried out, her back seared in pain and to top it all of she was still angry with her brothers. Michael tossed the glass aside and went onto healing her, after a few long seconds the wound was completely gone. Melinda instantly felt better and pushed away from Wyatt, no longer needing the support. She turned to Michael and eyed him for a moment, "Thanks." she said shortly before leaving all three of them standing in the hall after going back to her bedroom, closing the door loudly.

"She'll warm up to you." Wyatt said nervously breaking the awkward silence. Michael half rolled his eyes and orbed away. "That went well." Chris raised an eyebrow at his brother and shook his head as he went over and picked up what was left of one of the broken picture frames, the picture was of their parents Piper and Leo. It was an older picture, the two were still pretty young in it. He kept the picture but threw the pieces of the frame to the floor.

"You're definition of 'well' scares me." Chris said pocketing the photo, "Now do you believe that our priority should be finding this demon?"

When Melinda woke up the next morning she looked over at the clock, the digital numbers read 10:32. A little later then she wanted to sleep in, but in all of the hub last night she had forgotten to turn her alarm on. Walking down the stairs, she listened for any sounds coming from below. As she got closer to the bottom of the steps she heard a bit of rustling in the kitchen. With a great yawn, still trying to shake the sleepiness from her, Melinda stumbled into the kitchen. "The coffee better not be gone." she said. There was someone standing over by the sink with their back turned, still in a haze Melinda couldn't make out who it was at first.

"You drink that stuff?" Michael turned around to face Melinda. Her eyes finally focused, she jumped a little not expecting him.

"You mean you weren't a dream?" she groaned. Michael gave a sarcastic smile, he looked her outfit over.

"Is that all you wear to bed?"

Melinda realized she was wearing a pair of short shorts and a tank top with her robe hanging open, she quickly glanced down and pulled the robe around her. "Excuse me, do you mind?" she said in disgust. Michael threw his hands up in the air and spun around.

"Pardon me."

"What exactly are you doing here anyway? Where's Wyatt and--"

"Chris?" Michael interrupted orbing a glass of orange juice and a bowel of cereal that he had prepared for her over to the kitchen table. "Out hunting a demon, they think they have a lead on the one who was after you. I'm here to watch you." he said bitterly. Melinda looked at the offered food and turned her nose up at it. "What?" Michael asked with slight annoyance.

"I don't do orange juice. Or any juice for that matter." Melinda said in a stuck up way. On a daily basis Melinda wasn't as spoiled and snobby as she was acting this moment. In fact she hated people who acted the way she was at the time and place. No, this was just for dramatic effect to make it clear that she didn't like Michael. While Michael was indeed getting the message, he wasn't about to let her have the satisfaction. He walked over to the table and stood over Melinda.

"Too bad." he said shortly.

"I said I don't like juice." Melinda repeated.

"And I said too bad." Michael said through gritted teeth. Melinda took a deep breath and decided to take the theatrics to the next level. She hit the juice glass with the back of her hand. But Michael was quick to react he orbed the glass over above Melinda so it spilled on her head. He laughed and took several steps back as Melinda launched up from the chair her mouth hanging open in shock.

"What do you think you're doing?" Melinda asked, she stood there letting the sticky juice drip to the floor. Michael tried to stifle his laughter, "You had it coming."

"You are the worst whitelighter in history!"

"How do you know, I'm your first whitelighter. For all you know this is how we all act." Michael said, he gently grabbed a piece of her drenched hair and lifted it up to examine it. Melinda smacked his hand away, a smile beamed across his face.

"I don't believe you!" Melinda cried, she went over to the sink and picked up the dish towel and began to dry her hair. She saw a small basket of muffins next to the toaster near by, a thought crossed her mind. Melinda placed her hand over the muffin and turned to Michael with a crooked smile the muffin in hand raised in the air. Michael scoffed and crossed his arms. "You're going to hit me with a muffin?"

"No, this is actually a distraction." Melinda said, the bowel of cereal hovered above Michael's head. The island prevented Michael from seeing Melinda's free hand which was low but guiding the bowel. He furrowed his brow perplexed at Melinda's words, the next second a rush of cold liquid washed over him complete with Cheerio's to top it off. Melinda let the bowl down gently on the table but couldn't contain herself and burst out laughing at the sight. Michael stood there completely not amused. "That was cold."

"No that was pay back." Melinda said containing her laughter, she took a bite out of the muffin and tossed it to Michael. He orbed it away making it hit Melinda in the back of the head. She gasped, angered by this act. They were even but Michael took it further. Even though there was a playfulness in Michael's eyes, Melinda wasn't playing around. Taking a deep breath Melinda stormed past Michael, slipping a little on the spilled juice and milk that lay in puddles on the floor but she regained her footing and kept walking like nothing happened. Michael rolled his eyes, she was willing to fight back but acted like a baby when the score became uneven. He was left in the kitchen, hair soaked with Melinda's breakfast.

Melinda returned to the kitchen only after she had showered and put on some dry clothes. To her displeasure Michael was still there wiping up the floor of what was left the milk and cereal. She sighed and leaned against the door frame, "You didn't have to clean that up." she muttered. Michael looked up surprised by her presence, he finished cleaning the finish spot and rose bunching the wet paper towel in a ball. It turned into glowing orbs and vanished, Melinda could only guess that it's destination was the trashcan.

"It was kind of my fault." he said with a shrug, "It was the least I could do."

"Well, I was acting--"

"Like a spoiled brat?" Michael said finishing her sentence. Melinda smiled with guilt and nodded. "It's alright. I get that you don't want me here, I wouldn't want someone watching me either."

"It's not that." Melinda said, it was partially the truth anyway. "I just hoped my brother's would trust me more. I mean I am a witch too. They just don't treat me like it."

"Not sure how much insight I can give on this subject. I was an only child myself, none of that sibling rivalry. But I think you're brothers just want to make sure you're safe." Michael said, and Melinda knew he was right but a part of her didn't want to listen. She sighed and gave a nod. A silence fell between them but was a broken a minute later by screaming that came from outside. Melinda and Michael looked at each other in alarm and raced out of the house into the backyard where the scream had come from. Next door, out in plain sight stood a man wearing dark clothing towering over their neighbor ready to let the fireball in his hand fly.

"Hey!" Melinda shouted to get his attention, which she realized may have been a stupid idea, then again she couldn't have very well used her powers. The demon jerked his head in Melinda's and Michael's direction, he looked kind of confused. Gazing from the women on the ground cowering in fear over to Melinda. Then as if something inside his brain clicked he turned his full attention toward them. "Mrs. Larks run!" Melinda shouted desperately. Mrs. Larks look over at Melinda, when she saw that the man was no longer after her she got up and fled inside her house sobbing in terror.

The demon appeared in front of the two and smiled, "Halliwell." he growled. A fireball appeared in his hand, Melinda made a gesture with her hand sending the demon flying into the air across the backyard. "Get in the house!" Melinda cried. Michael grabbed her arm and the two orbed into the conservatory. "I could have done that." Melinda said. Being in or out of the house didn't matter. Again the demon appeared, but this time was quicker with his attack. He shot the fireball at Melinda, Michael pushed her out of the way just barely missing the attack himself. The poor glass table exploded sending shards flying.

"Michael I should tell you something."

"Right now?" The demon sent another ball of fire at Michael who dodged and fired back with his own energy ball but the demon was too fast.

"I can't vanquish him." she confessed, "Not without a potion, I don't have the power to yet." she screamed as a fire ball aimed for her head came speeding her way. Melinda dove to the side behind Michael. He kept firing off energy balls, "You're telling me this now? After it was you're idea to fight him?"

"I'm sorry!" Melinda ducked again. "I guess I didn't think everything through, the whole 'hey' thing seemed like a good idea at the time." She could tell Michael was getting tired and wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Melinda sent one of the vases sailing into the demon's head. He stumbled a little, not expecting the attack. This action had done more bad than good, it just made the demon angry the next string of attacks proved hard for Michael to keep blocking or dodging.

"Wyatt! Chris!" Melinda pleaded. The last attack grazed Michael's shoulder nearly hitting Melinda in the head. Wyatt and Chris orbed in, upon seeing the demon and the scene before them Wyatt and Chris attacked at once hitting the demon in the chest causing him to scream as he burst into flames. They looked over to Michael and Melinda, "I thought with Michael around this kind of stuff, calling for us, wasn't going to happen anymore. We were closing in on the demon that attacked you last night." Chris said.

"Oh no, we're fine Chris thanks for asking." Melinda said full of sarcasm. Wyatt healed Michael who immediately began apologizing.

"Guys I'm sorry, he was just--"

"It's alright." Wyatt said, "You protected Melinda that's all that matters. But would you mind filling us in on what happened. And, why do you smell like spoiled milk?" Wyatt and Chris both scrunched their faces up when taking a whiff of the smell coming off of Michael. Melinda bit her bottom lip to try not to keep herself from laughing out loud. As the two of them launched into the story Melinda couldn't help but be very grateful toward Michael. He did protect her, then again she was his charge and it was his job. Melinda didn't want to admit it out loud but maybe Michael wouldn't be so bad to have around after all.


	3. 1x03 Unforeseen Mistake

A week passed and Wyatt and Chris were close to finding the demon that was after Melinda. Thanks to a few demons' who were willing to talk, before they were vanquished, Wyatt and Chris now had some idea where to look for this thing even though they still didn't have a name for it. Melinda and Michael were getting a long, well at least somewhat better then their first meeting. Every time Wyatt and Chris went out, Michael would come to watch and protect Melinda incase of another demon attack. It was getting rather annoying, Michael would constantly follow her to each room she went to. It would seem he was taking the whole watching thing too seriously.

Wyatt and Chris left around noon to go and hit up a more upper level demon for information. The only thing they knew about the specific demon in question was that some other demons have seen it around lately. But for the most part they refused to give a name or any other specifics. Sitting at home, Melinda felt completely useless and she hated it. Michael, surprisingly hadn't shown up yet and her brothers had been gone for an hour or so. She lay on the couch upside down watching the TV across the room. There was nothing on during the day so she ended up putting the TV on one of the many soap operas, but found them more interesting viewing them upside-down. Just a Ricardo was about to confess to Melissa that he had slept with her evil twin sister Veronica, who had killed Ricardo's best friend Spencer the episode before after he slept with Veronica's best friend Claire, white orbs filled her view and Michael stood there in front of the TV. She looked up at him, "It's about time." she muttered. "Could you move please, I think Veronica is going to poison her sister."

Michael starred down at her, "What are you doing?"

"Well, I was trying to watch something." Melinda said spinning herself upright. She fixed her hair so it wasn't puffy from hanging off the couch. With a quick lightheaded spell, Melinda shook her head slightly to clear her mind. "Why are you late?"

"Where's Wyatt and Chris? I need to talk to them." Michael said, hoping that the two weren't out and about kicking some demon butt. Melinda heard the urgentness in the tone of his voice and sat a little more at attention on the couch.

"They're out, they think they found another lead on that demon." Michael sighed and flopped down in the armchair that sat cattycornered to the couch. "Why something wrong?"

Michael sat forward a little, trying to contain his excitement. "I think I know what demon was after you. I'm surprised I didn't put two and two together before."

"How do you know?"

"Because I remembered learning about a demon like this when I was younger. Okay, when I was just starting as a Whitelighter. It was in this old book of demon's and warlocks, which I happened to find at Magic School. Why dumb and dumber didn't think to check there I have no idea. I mean you dad runs the place right?"

Melinda initially laughed at the comment made toward her brothers and nodded yes to Michael's question, her dad was the headmaster of Magic School but for the past couple weeks one of the teachers had taken his place while he was on vacation with everyone else.

"So what demon is it?"

"It doesn't have an original name, but has become to be known as the Energy Demon."

"That's not very creative." Melinda mused; the name was fairly cheesy then again there were other names that were just as bad if not worse.

"It's named because it drains energy and electricity from the area it's in. Which explains the blackouts every time it comes around. The thing is, no one has seen what it looks like. The demon itself has been around for only a hundred years, so it's still just a baby in demon terms. It avoids the sunlight at all costs, which again explains why it seems to only attack at night. It gathers more power from the electricity, so being a fairly low level demon it can get pretty strong depending on how much electricity is in the area." Michael sat back thoroughly pleased with himself for finding all of this out. Melinda starred at him for a long moment, letting everything Michael said sink in.

"Did the book say how to vanquish it?" Melinda asked, but with a disappointing gaze from Michael Melinda already knew the answer before he said it. "No one knows how to vanquish it?"

"Well it's a rare demon, and it's probably the only one. Alchemists and witches have theories of how to vanquish it but--"

"Theories? That's not exactly comforting."

Wyatt and Chris orbed in, both looking rather disappointed, but not as much as Melinda did. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing, its just there isn't any known way to vanquish the Energy Demon that's after me." Melinda said, she stood up and crossed the room. Chris's eyes lit up as he looked from Melinda to Michael.

"You identified the demon?" Michael gave a proud nod, "How?"

"Magic School, you guys should try it sometime." Michael said with a smug grin. He filled Wyatt and Chris in on the situation retelling everything he had just said to Melinda. The two brothers looked excited, "This is great, we know what the demon is now. Me and Wyatt can work on a spell to summon it."

"But what about--" Melinda is all she got out before her brother cut her off.

"Once we have it here we can contain it and work on vanquishing it." Wyatt said. "We'll get working on the spell, Michael we'll need your help seeing as how you know more about this thing than we do." And with that the three of them orbed up to the attic.

"What about me?" Melinda called after them, but it was no use they didn't hear her and even if they did they probably would have told her to stay downstairs or in the house anyway. She scoffed and threw herself on the couch, "This sucks." Melinda hated being left out, especially when it came to magic. Just because she wasn't as strong as her brothers didn't mean she had no power at all. Melinda quickly sat upright, that was it. She was a witch, which meant she could spells just like her brothers. Even without their help. Melinda grabbed the TV guide off the coffee table and picked up a felt tip marker. In the margins she began to write her own spell, one that could summon the demon, and then a second spell to vanquish it. This way she could show her brothers that she was able to handle herself. She scribbled out line after line, she threw the TV guide on the coffee table and sat back on the couch with he arms crossed.

"You think I'd be able to come up with a few sentences that rhyme." she muttered out loud. Melinda took a deep breath and let it out, and suddenly she had the perfect spell. She wrote it down and fixed the wording slightly and held the paper up in praise.

"From far or near, I call forth the demon to me here!"

At first nothing happened, "Go figure." Melinda huffed, but then a figure flickered into being in front of her. A demon, wearing their usual black clothing, slicked back dark hair with a four-inch scar on the left side of his face, looked confused at his surroundings but upon seeing Melinda a twisted smile grew on his face. When the lights didn't go out, Melinda knew that this wasn't the demon she meant to summon.

"I have a question." Michael said as he watched Wyatt and Chris who were about ready to call the demon. "How are we, or you two going to vanquish it seeing as how the lights will be off and we won't be able to see."

Wyatt blinked and looked at Chris who returned his gaze with a half shrug. "We're kind of making this up as we go along." Chris said.

Michael laughed nervously, "You're joking." when Wyatt nor Chris said anything else, Michael's stomach turned a little. "You're not joking. Okay, so suppose you could see into the future Chris what would you be doing once the Energy Demon gets here?"

The sarcasm in Michael's voice annoyed Chris, he didn't like being mocked, and then again who did. Chris drew in a breath, "In the future I see me vanquishing you by mistake because you 'got in the way, I mean the lights will be out I couldn't see you I just thought you were the Energy demon. Any more stupid questions?" Wyatt smirked a little but tried to not let it show to Michael, it wasn't funny what Chris had said, well it was a little funny but it shouldn't have been. Michael shut his mouth and didn't say anything else. Midway through the spell Michael felt a strong pain in his right side. He doubled over in pain, "Melinda." he said. The two brothers dropped the spell and followed Michael out of the attic and downstairs.

The conservatory windows were shattered furniture over turned and scorch marks in the floor. Michael was the first to enter to the scene, Melinda was being against the wall by a man in black holding a cross bow in his free hand. It turned out that the "demon" Melinda summoned was a Darklighter. "Melinda." the Darklighter's head whipped around, he raised the crossbow and fired at Michael but he orbed before it could hit him. Instead the arrow struck Wyatt in the shoulder who had just come bounding down the stairs and entered the conservatory with Chris not to far behind.

Melinda wanted to call out to them but the Darklighter held her throat, he fired another arrow aimed for Chris but Michael orbed back and shoved them aside as Chris tended to his brother. The Darklighter turned his attention back to Melinda, "You neglected to tell me you weren't alone my little witch." he said leaning close to her. She struggled and tried to orb out but was unable to.

"Hey!" Chris said, he stood in front of Wyatt while Michael took the arrow out and healed him. The Darklighter turned to look at Chris, "Get away from my sister." He threw his left hand out in front of him and made a sideways swiping gesture. The Darklighter went airborne and crashed into the wall. Wyatt got up completely healed and pushed his arms out in front of him, the Darklighter burst into flames leaving only a scorch mark on the tile flooring. Michael rushed to Melinda who was lying on the ground, he now saw the Darklighter arrow that was stuck in her right side that he did not see before because of the Darklighter blocking his view. "If I didn't know any better, I think you enjoyed being the damsel in distress." he joked leaning over her. She smiled weakly, "Yes, I love being clawed, blasted, and shot."

Michael yanked the arrow out and quickly healed her. He stood up and offered his hand out to help her.

"Now that that's over." Chris said, "Melinda what happened? Are you alright?"

Melinda heard the question but it didn't register at first she was still trying to catch back up to the events, everything had happened so fast. She attempted to summon the Energy Demon but ended up summoning a Darklighter somehow, who nearly killed her. Melinda was smart though; she wasn't about to tell her brothers that she was the one who caused all of this trouble.

"Yeah I'm fine. He just came at me from behind out of nowhere. I don't even know where he came from." Melinda said in a rather convincing manner, she went to walk over to Wyatt and Chris when she felt her hand slip from Michael's. He had been holding her hand the entire time and she didn't even realize it. She quickly glanced back at Michael, "Are you okay?' she asked back to Wyatt. He looked down at his shoulder, the only thing that was left to suggest that he was attacked was a small tear in his shirt.

"Yeah, but I really liked this shirt though." he said with a laugh.

"I think we have bigger problems though." Chris said breaking the start of a light mood in the air. "Not only are demon's after Melinda, but Darklighter's too."

"Yeah well at least everyone managed to survive." Wyatt said, "I think we should just start cleaning up and prepare for the Energy Demon."

"You're still going to try and summon it?' Michael questioned, "Even without knowing how to vanquish it?"

"Didn't we already have this conversation?" Chris wondered aloud, "We'll figure it out. In the meantime let's get this place cleaned up."

Wyatt took to sweeping up the broken glass, while Chris righted the furniture that was left intact leaving Michael and Melinda to try and get out the scorch mark on the tile. They scrubbed relentlessly with little progress. "This isn't going to work." Michael said sitting back off of his knees. He sighed and looked around, "Does this sort of thing happen a lot around here?"

"Used too when Mom, Phoebe and Paige were younger. It got better as the years went on, but just recently started getting bad again." Wyatt said, "Probably demon's taking advantage of the Charmed Ones being out of town."

"Speaking of which, when are they supposed to be back?" Michael asked, "Sorry if I'm being nosey, I've just always wanted to meet the Charmed Ones." he added with slight embarrassment. Melinda and Wyatt cracked a smile, and looked at each other for a second.

"You're a fan?" Melinda asked slyly, dunking the sponge into the water bucket. She squeezed some of the water out and went right back to scrubbing the mark with the bristled side.

"It's just you here a lot about them Up There, and it makes you want to meet them. Plus they've been in pretty much every book I've read, recently." Michael said.

"Got it." Wyatt said with a nod, "They'll be gone till next week. They went on a week cruise, and then they're off to Europe for a while. Believe me they deserve a long vacation."

"After all of this business I'm going to need a long vacation." Michael muttered. They all smiled and enjoyed this light moment. Chris came walking back into the conservatory, "Melinda." he said, "What's this? Were you writing a spell?" he held up the TV guide with Melinda's spell on written in permanent black marker on the front. The smile fell from Melinda's face, Wyatt crossed the room and took the guide from Chris's hand and silently read the two-line incantation. He looked over at Melinda, who was now looking rather uneasy; Wyatt put two and two together and figured it out.

"You tried to summoned the Darklighter didn't you?" disappointment with a hint of anger filled his voice. Melinda looked nervously from her brother's to Michael; he held the same look as her brother's did.

"I was just writing stuff down, I didn't--" Melinda knew that they saw right through her lie, "Alright, I summoned him. But I was really trying to summon the Energy Demon if that makes you feel any better."

"How is that supposed to make us feel any better?" Wyatt said, "You summoned a Darklighter to this house, that's full of Whitelighters! Not to mention you did it alone."

"I'm sorry." Melinda said.

"No. I'm sorry Melinda, there is no sorry. You're grounded." Wyatt said.

"I'm 18 you can't ground me." Melinda said, Wyatt stood there for a second trying to work things out. Melinda saw the slight defeat in his eyes and she took a bit of pride in that, but she wasn't about to be off the hook. Chris spoke before his brother could, "Michael is going to be with you 24/7 from now on." This proposal received an outrageous "What!" from both parties.

"Chris is right." Wyatt recovered, "Just until we can trust you again."

He took the guide and walked to the kitchen, he threw it in the trash. Melinda entered and stood on end of the island with Wyatt at the other.

"Wyatt I said I was sorry. It won't happen again, I had the best intentions. I just wanted to prove I could handle myself." Melinda said trying to plead her case, but evidently it wasn't going over too well. Wyatt walked passed Melinda to the basement door; he flipped the light switch and headed down to grab a few light bulbs to replace those that had been shattered in the attack. "You really proved that didn't you." he said sarcastically.

Melinda's heart sank she pursued her brother, he had never been this mad at her before and she truly felt bad. "Wyatt, wait it was just a mistake!"

As if nothing else could go wrong, the lights went off in the basement went off as soon as Melinda's foot hit the last step, the Energy Demon, they all knew it. The two of them suspected all of the light in the entire house were off too. They stood still; Wyatt listened intently for the demon's movements. He felt something move in front of him and without hesitation he made the same movement with his hands as he did when vanquishing the Darklighter. A cry filled the air followed by flames and then silence. The lights came back on and Melinda saw the circular scorch mark in front of Wyatt where she knew the Energy Demon had stood seconds before.

"A mistake that shouldn't have been made." Wyatt said as if the whole vanquish hadn't happened. He took out two light bulbs from their small box and headed back up the stairs. Melinda followed behind him and switched off the light before closing the basement door.


	4. 1x04 Charmed I'm Sure

"Wyatt behind you

"Wyatt behind you!" Chris shouted, a very unfriendly looking demon decided to take advantage of Wyatt's battle with another demon to sneak up behind him. He shot a fireball at Wyatt's back, but hearing Chris's warning he orbed out of the battle as fast as he could. The fireball hit the demon's companion and sent him up in flames. Wyatt orbed next to Chris who sent his own demon flying in the air and crashing into the other. Chris took out the small vial of blue potion and threw it at the pair of demons, vanquishing them as the glass shattered open.

"Nice job." Wyatt said trying to catch his breath. He slapped Chris across the back and looked around the alley to see if there were anymore off hiding behind the garbage can or the stacks of boxes and other trash that littered the alley. Chris shrugged and nodded in response as a thank you. "I don't think they're anymore here. Just those three." Wyatt said, "Let's get back, we don't have anymore potions." he gave a side glance to Chris, they had three vials with them but the first two had broken. One was knocked out of Chris's hand, and the other had fallen from his pocket.

"Maybe next time you should take a potion when I offer it. Then they wouldn't fall out of my jacket." Chris said, he orbed with Wyatt following closely behind him.

The arrived back home at the manor in the dining room, Melinda walked passed the door way in the front hall with Michael right on her heels. Wyatt and Chris decided to cut them off by going into the conservatory, and sure enough Melinda stormed with Michael behind her. She let out a frustrated sigh and quickly turned on the balls of her feet. "Would you stop that!"

"What's going on?" Wyatt asked, he could tell Melinda was annoyed and the look on Michael's face was of pure delight. Melinda turned to Wyatt and threw her arms up in the air.

"He won't stop following me." Melinda said, "Everywhere I go he's there. In the kitchen, in the living room, the attic, my room."

"Wait, what were you doing in the attic?" Chris interjected; he hoped that his sister hadn't been flipping through the book of shadows. She did have the right to look through it but after what happened yesterday they didn't need her casting any spell.

"I wasn't I was just naming a place in the manor. I'm trying to make a point!" Melinda said rolling her eyes, "He's been my constant shadow and I swear if he keeps it up he's going to be a dead Whitelighter!"

Chris could tell she was telling the truth, besides Michael wouldn't have let her up there or would have told the two of them about it. Wyatt didn't seem concerned he just found the entire situation comical. They told Michael to stay with Melinda at all times and to keep an eye on her. He had no idea that he would take it to this extreme, Wyatt could tell that he wasn't the only one getting a kick out of it.

"You can't kill me." Michael said simply, "I'm an angel." he plucked the final nerve on Melinda. Her eye twitched a little, "Just watch me."

"Okay," Wyatt said pulling his sister away from Michael. She was starring him dead in the eyes challenging him but the whole time Michael kept the smile on his face. "Let's just calm down for a second. Michael you don't have to follow Melinda everywhere. You didn't follow her into the bathroom did you?"

"No, of course not." Michael said sounding offended by the very idea. He was just following Melinda around as closely as he was just to annoy her, but he wouldn't invade that type of privacy. "How did the demon hunt go?" he said changing the subject.

"Three less demon's in world." Wyatt said, taking his eyes of Melinda. She had calmed down and no longer looked like she was ready to tear Michael a new one. "We came back to work on some more potions."

"Did one get away?" Michael asked.

"No, but with demon's popping up left and right these days, it's best to be prepared." Wyatt explained, "With luck we won't have to go demon hunting for a while."

"It's unlikely that the Energy Demon, who Wyatt did quite a number on the other day, was the big bad we're after." Chris said, Melinda tilted her head slightly.

"You think there is some higher power after me?" Melinda asked, she shifted on the spot feeling a tad uneasy about this new theory Chris brought up.

"We can't prove anything yet, but Wyatt and I are looking into it. The possibility that someone, or something hired these demons to come after is more likely than just random demon attacks." Chris said.

"Until then we can't let you leave the house or Michael's sight at this point." Wyatt said, he saw that his sister had opened her mouth and was ready to object but he cut her off before she could get past the word "but". "It's too dangerous Mel. Just please listen to us this one time alright?"

The doorbell rang at that very moment which gave cause for Wyatt to leave, and he knew that Melinda wouldn't try to reason with Chris. Chris wouldn't change his mind, plus the two never got along the greatest. Wyatt sighed as the doorbell rang again and again, "What now?" he muttered walking to the door. Through the colored glass on the door he could make out the silhouette of a women. He opened the door a little and stuck his head out. "May I help you?" Wyatt asked opening the front door, a young women with long light brown hair dressed in 17th century period clothing jumped as the door opened. Wyatt couldn't help but stare at the women with a puzzled expression on his face. She looked startled and bewildered herself. "May I help you?" Wyatt repeated, the women blinked and bowed her head a little.

"I'm sorry to bother you sir," she said with a light accent, the women glanced around outside before she leaned forward and lowered her voice to a whisper. "There is a warlock after me, I am in need of you help."

Wyatt tried t play it off as if he had no idea what she was talking about. "Nice joke lady." he laughed a little but the women's expression hardly changed. She looked pleadingly at him, "You are the only witch in the area, and you are the only one who can help me!"

Wyatt stopped laughing and swallowed hard, he opened the door a bit more and grabbed the young women by the arm and brought her inside practically slamming the door behind him. But the two weren't alone in the front hall for long; Chris, Melinda and Michael had come to see what the commotion was about. They greeted the stranger with even stranger stares, she simply flashed them a nervous smile before turning back to Wyatt.

"How do you know I'm a witch?" he asked in a hushed voice, as if some neighbor had suddenly come up to the door and was pressed against it listening to every word.

"I could sense you. It's my power; I can sense other magic users within a certain area." she said with a hint of excitement, it was obvious that she hadn't been able to share this secret with many so this opportunity was something new.

"I'm sorry," Chris said jumping into the conversation, "But who is she?"

"I'm Abigail How, of Salem Village." Abigail said with a small nod of her head.

"It's nice to meet you Abigail." Wyatt said with a smile extending his hand out to her, she looked a tad confused and unsure what to do. Luckily Chris spoke again so she didn't have to stand there just starring at his hand.

"Salem Village? As in Salem Salem. The Massachusetts kind?" he asked, Abigail nodded yes to his question.

"What are you doing all the way here in California?" Melinda asked, "You're kind of far from home aren't you."

"Time travel is a trivial thing," Michael said, "I've heard of cases where witches have ended up on different continents during time travel. It all depends on who casted the spell, and factors down to whether or not they said the words right, thought of the correct place and so on. Actually the spell could have been done correctly but since it's a powerful feat of magic, it's possible that the witch couldn't control it and poof, wrong destination. There's a chance that Abigail meant to go to another point in time and not this point and place, or maybe she meant to be here but not the time."

"Are you done?" Chris asked. Michael flushed a little, he had rambled on and for some reason no one thought to cut him off mid way.

"But I didn't mean to come here." Abigail said desperately.

"See I was right." Michael said, Melinda elbowed him in the gut.

"No that's not what I meant," she said. "I didn't open a time portal. Someone else did, a warlock I think."

"A warlock? Why would a warlock want to come to the future?" Wyatt asked.

"He dressed so strangely, he wore all black but had on a long coat. Very different from the clothing worn by everyone else in Salem." Abigail said.

"He was from future, I mean now." Melinda said, "He must have gone to the past for something, or someone. He might have been after Abigail, needing her for something in the future, uh now."

"That actually makes sense." Wyatt said with a smile.

"It's been known to happen." Melinda grinned proud of herself. She looked around at Chris and Michael with a proud expression.

"But he didn't seem to want anything to do with me. I was in the kitchen and suddenly he appeared, we made eye contact and then he created the portal and left. I can't be sure but he seemed scared. I followed after him."

"Not to sound rude or anything, but why would you ever follow a warlock?" Michael asked, "That seems like a bad idea in my mind."

"It doesn't matter, we'll get to work sending Abigail back to her time, and place." Wyatt said walking over to the staircase, "Then we'll deal with this warlock, Abigail do you think you could identify the warlock if you saw him again?"

"I believe so." she nodded, "He looked familiar but I couldn't place his face with another that I knew."

Wyatt, Chris and Abigail made their way upstairs; Melinda knew that they weren't going to let her help. It was useless trying, she watched them until they disappeared to the next floor and their voices became distant. "And then there were two." Melinda said over her shoulder to Michael. He shared her same enthusiasm; both of them headed to the dinning room and took a seat on opposite sides of the table.

"For once I wish they would just trust me." Melinda muttered.

"I know what you mean, well I don't know what you mean. What I mean is, have you noticed how three seems to be a crowd for those two? Since I've been here every time I try to help, or relay some important information it's not enough. I don't think I've gotten one thank you from them at all. And Chris, what's with him? How are you related to a cynic such as him?"

Melinda allowed Michael to vent his frustration; it was refreshing to find someone who was saying the exact things she was thinking. She leaned forward a little on the table,

"You pretty bitter for a Whitelighter you know that?" she said with a tiny laugh.

"It's just, I've always been on the sidelines. Kind of my job as a Whitelighter, usually I'm shoved off to the side until someone is hurt then everybody wants my help." Michael sighed, "Don't get me wrong, I love being a Whitelighter helping people, I just want to be of more help then sitting back and waiting for something to happen."

Melinda's expression changed, she didn't know why Michael was opening up so much to her, and to be honest it felt kind of awkward. He avoided looking at her, and she didn't try to catch his glance. "Is that all you think you're good for? You protect witches, without you we wouldn't stand a chance against demons and warlocks and all of the evil out there."

"I highly doubt that." Michael scoffed.

"You're not only bitter you're a…a…a Negative Nancy!" Melinda said, Michael turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Did you just call me a Negative Nancy?" Michael asked.

"I couldn't think of anything else point is just because you don't demon hunt, or cast spells doesn't mean you're useless. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you, Wyatt too. Chris may be able to orb, but he can't heal and neither can I. So I say you're pretty damn useful." Melinda sputtered out trying to make her point, she was standing up now, "If anyone should be depressed it should be me, my own brother's don't trust me with magic, or anything else for that matter and I'm 19."

"I thought you were 18." Michael said interrupting her.

"Yeah well whatever I was close." she said throwing her arms in the air, Michael cracked a smile and began to laugh a little. "I fail to see the humor in all of this, we both just pretty much established how much our lives suck."

"I'm sorry." Michael said between laughs, "I don't know why I'm laughing."

Melinda let a smile come to her face as she too began to laugh; they each shared the hilarity of the moment, whatever it might have been. A man in black blinked in behind Melinda, immediately the smile was wiped off of Michael's face, "Melinda!" he instinctively shouted, "Look out!"

"So how old are you?" Wyatt asked, Chris thumbed through the Book of Shadows searching for the time travel spell. Abigail was examining the old sewing machine that had sat in the attic for as long as Wyatt or Chris could remember.

"About 20." she said half paying attention to Wyatt, he had been trying to make some small talk, but proved to be quite unsuccessful. "There are quite some amazing devices in the future. It's a shame I won't be around to see them all. To live in a world where Witches are not hunted down."

Wyatt bit his bottom lip, "Actually, that kind of still happens today. There are some witch hunters out there, and then there's warlocks, demons, other kinds of assorted evils. To be honest it's kind of the same world." he said, Chris glanced up and shook his head.

"Found the spell," he said, tossing the white chalk to his brother. Wyatt caught it and walked over to the opposite wall, Abigail watched him work. "Are you sure this will send me back?" she asked.

"If it doesn't then I don't know what will." Chris said. Wyatt finished drawing the triquetra and backed away to examine his work. Thoroughly pleased he set the chalk down and clapped his hands together. "Let's do this."

Abigail backed a way several steps, "Does it have to be now? I want to see more of the future. I have so many questions, mostly about those strange carriages outside. They moved without a horse pulling them, how do they move is magic involved? Further more—"

"We can't tell you those things." Wyatt said cutting her off, "I'm sorry but we can't tell you anything. It's too dangerous; going back with enough future information can change the future, maybe for bad. Nothing personal Abigail, we just can't risk it."

"I understand, but you can't blame me for trying right?" Abigail smiled. Wyatt was the first to notice the sudden distant look in Abigail's eyes; she swayed on the spot for a second before catching herself. She blinked; looking terrified "He's here, the warlock. I can sense his magic!"

Chris and Wyatt's head jerked in the same direction toward the attic door, "Melinda." They both rushed passed Abigail and down the stairs, forgetting about Abigail in that quick instant. She watched them go and remained in the attic for a minute before she decided to go after them.

Back on the ground floor Melinda had the warlock cornered in the conservatory, which was now a mess yet again. She threw one of the metal chairs at the warlock, he cowered let the chair hit him. "Wait! Please!" he begged. "Let me explain myself!"

"You're a warlock what's to explain!" she tossed a potted plant this time. Michael remained in the dinning room unconscious from the warlock's first attack, well his defense against Michael's energy ball. Wyatt and Chris found Melinda, they let the scene absorb not expecting to find Melinda kicking, well ass.

"I didn't mean to hurt him!" the warlock cried covering his head.

"Yeah I'm sure you didn't!" Melinda cried as she threw the second houseplant. "Why should I believe you?"

"Because I don't want to be a warlock anymore!" he shouted from the floor.

Melinda scoffed and raised her arm ready to send another object at the warlock, "Nice try." Chris ran up and grabbed Melinda's arm, before now she didn't realize that her brother's had been watching. "What are doing?"

"I think he gets the point Melinda." Chris said bringing her arm down slowly, he let go she didn't try to throw another object. "We can get it from here."

Wyatt walked over to the Warlock and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt, "Why are you after Abigail? And what did you mean you don't want to be a warlock anymore?"

"I'm not after her, and I didn't stutter did I? I don't want to be a warlock." he said.

"I don't believe you." Wyatt said, throwing him across the room. Abigail entered the room out of breath; she stood behind Chris expecting protection or some sort. "You opened that portal didn't you?"

"Yeah I did, but I had a good reason, if you'll just let me explain!" he said standing up and brushing himself off. "I was trying to earlier before your deranged sister's Whitelighter attacked me, and worse she came after me. Look if I try anything you have my full permission to blow me up."

"That's comforting." Chris said, "Start talking, you have three seconds until we blow you up regardless. For starters, do you have a name?"

"Simon," the warlock said, nervously shifting his gaze back and forth between Chris and Wyatt. "Simon Douglas. And I wasn't after that witch, why would I go after my relatives?"

"Relatives?" Wyatt repeated, "You mean Abigail is your ancestor?"

"Yeah that's exactly what I mean." Simon said.

"Why did you go back in time then?" Chris asked. Simon scoffed and rolled his eyes, something Wyatt and Chris didn't like. Their expressions hardened and Simon knew that they weren't joking around, not like he didn't know before though.

"Well, if you'll let me finish. As I was saying, I wouldn't go after my relatives, at least not her. She wasn't my intended target; I didn't even mean to go back that far in freaking history. The spell was only supposed to take me back like 30 years."

"Why only 30 years?" Melinda asked, the warlock didn't like being interrupted.

"If you'd let me finish!" he snapped. "I'm not full warlock, none of that good witch gone bad crap. I'm half warlock, but none of that mortal mother bull. No, I'm part warlock part witch. My dad was a sap and fell for the witch he was after, long story short they fell in love and bam here I am 28 years later. Anyway, over those years I'm all supposed to kill and stuff, you know keep up the whole family business. So I go on with it for awhile, but after seeing how my father really treated my mother round age 14 I decided I didn't want to follow his bloody footsteps."

"What did he do to her?" Wyatt asked, he couldn't resist asking the question, the warlock went to say something but remembered that this guy could finish him off in a second flat and figured he pushed his luck enough already.

"The only reason she was still with him was because he threatened her every day to steal her powers and kill her. He claimed to love her, but I think the bastard only stayed because he wanted children, someone to keep his legacy. My sister was like seven at the time and I had to watch out for her. Didn't want to leave her motherless so I played my father's game for the next couple years but when he decided to act on his threat and killed my mother I lost it." Simon paused, he swallowed and when nobody asked another question or said anything he continued,

"I left but had to leave my sister behind. He's got her so wrapped around his finger I couldn't talk her into coming with me, even when I tried a few years ago. Anyhow, I ran from my father for years barely escaping his attempts on my life. A couple years ago he ran into the Charmed Ones and met his end."

"I'm sorry." Melinda said with a bit of forced sympathy.

"Don't be," Simon scoffed, "I just wish I could have been the one to do it."

"That all still doesn't explain why you wanted to go back in time?" Chris said. He didn't know about Wyatt but he was starting to grow impatient with Simon.

"I figure if I go back in time to when I was seven, my sister would have been conceived and I could kill the son of a bitch so he couldn't kill my mother later. Then maybe growing up she'd raise us not to be killers" Simon said through gritted teeth.

"I thought you said you wouldn't hurt your own relative." Wyatt said,

"I don't call that murderous bastard my father. I only did for storytelling value." Simon said.

"Why are you even here then?" Melinda asked.

Simon groaned and rolled his eye, "Is that all you three do is ask questions? I only came here to get that ancestor of mine back to her time. Cause if she doesn't go back I'm not born, and that's not exactly what I was aiming for. Are we done with the Q and A, cause I'm kind of on a time limit here the longer she's here the chance of me vanishing are getting better."

They all stood there looking warily at Simon, his story seemed well thought out and he had put the right emotions in at the right part. Maybe he wasn't lying at all, although he seemed convincing Wyatt kept telling himself that this was a warlock, even if half. He drew in a breath and sighed, "Alright, I guess I believe you but we're sending Abigail back not you."

"Fair enough." Simon said with a shrug, "I don't care how just as long as she gets back."

"He's my future grandson?" Abigail asked peeking out from behind Chris. Wyatt didn't notice her standing there. He smiled at her.

"Something like that, come on we've got to get you back." Wyatt said, "I'm not sure if it's safe to leave Mel with the warlock though."

"To be honest I think Melinda could have finished him off if she wanted to." Chris said. "She'll survive."

Melinda starred at Chris in disbelief; she blinked and smiled at him. It seemed that they finally trusted her; at least they weren't treating her like she was made of glass. Wyatt reluctantly left the room leading Abigail back up to the attic followed by Chris. Melinda turned and smiled broadly at the warlock Simon who flinched as she walked by him. "You see that? They trust me." she boasted.

Michael walked into the conservatory rubbing his head, "What happened?"

"Turns out the warlock wasn't evil, or doesn't want to be evil. He was never after Abigail but instead his warlock father who killed his warlock mother so now Chris and Wyatt are sending Abigail back to her time, Simon is good or hopes to be soon, and most importantly, are you ready for this? Wyatt and Chris trust me now! Well actually I'm not sure about Wyatt but Chris does and that is saying something for progress." Melinda ran out of a breath, she breathed in and let out a sigh of relief. Michael blinked still groggy; he looked from the warlock to Melinda a couple times.

"Is that all?" he muttered sarcastically. "And here I thought I missed the important parts."

Up in the attic Wyatt and Chris opened the portal. Abigail stood starring at it. She took a step forward and stopped and turned back around. "I don't want to go back. I hardly know you all and I want to. I can't go back to a place where I don't know if I'm going to be put on trail next. It's scary back there."

"I've got news for you Abigail, it's not much better here and now." Chris said.

Abigail walked over to Wyatt, "Please don't make me go. There's nothing for me back there."

"We both know that there is Abigail, I mean you're Simon's great great great great great great great great, grandmother."

"That might have been too many greats." Chris said, he stood back counting on his fingers. Wyatt shook his head and ignored his brother.

"I know, it's just—" she cut herself off. "Wyatt, Chris you've been so kind to me. I don't know how I can repay you all. If you're ever in Salem, in 1692 don't be afraid to stop by. It was a joke." Abigail added seeing a slightly blank look on Wyatt's face. "I've learned something from you after all. Good bye then."

Wyatt opened his arms; Abigail paused for a second but went in and gave him a hug. "Thank you, I won't forget you." Abigail whispered. They let go and Abigail walked up to the portal. She glanced back at them both as she vanished through it, the entire time Wyatt didn't take his gaze off of her. The portal closed leaving only the white chalk triquetra on the wall. Chris raised his eyebrows and smirked, "I saw that."

"Huh?" Wyatt said still looking longingly at the wall.

"You liked her didn't you?" Chris asked.

"Don't be ridiculous." Wyatt said snapping back to reality, he flushed a little and quickly went to the Book of Shadows and closed it.

"I saw you eyeing her as she left." Chris said with a laugh.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Wyatt said walking pass Chris to the attic door.

Chris followed behind him, "Please you were all over her, and if I wasn't here lord knows what you two would have done. You're nasty you know that? She's like a couple hundred years older then you, you do realize this?"

"I told you I have no idea what you mean." Wyatt said innocently heading downstairs, Chris let out a laugh behind him.

"You're rich you know that?" he said, "You know what I think she might have been into you too."

"Come on." Wyatt scoffed; he stopped on the stairs to give the idea a thought. Chris passed him by and continued down. "You really think so?" he asked trying to catch up.

The brothers continued on with the subject until they reached the bottom of the stairs where they were met with an airborne Michael. He flew into the two knocking them down. They recovered quite fast, except Michael he remained down. From the front hall Wyatt ad Chris could see Melinda trying to fight off the Simon in the sitting room. She kept throwing furniture at him but it hardly made him flinch. He had been holding back when Melinda decided to go all Rambo on him the first time. Simon saw that Melinda was growing tired and took advantage of it; an athame appeared in the warlock's hand. He made a move toward Melinda but Chris put a stop to that, he sent Simon flying into the air toward them and away from their sister.

"I thought you said that you wanted to become good!" Chris said holding him up in the air.

"With the powers of the Charmed Ones children I can easily defeat my father. Hope you understand!" Simon threw the athame; Chris dodged it dropping Simon in the process.

"Sorry if we don't!" Wyatt said, he sent an energy ball at Simon but he blinked away only to reappear behind Wyatt.

"Wyatt!" Melinda shouted her warning came just in time and Wyatt orbed out of harms way as Simon was just about to stab him with another athame. Another energy ball came from the direction of the stairs, Michael had recovered, and not expecting the attack the warlock doubled back in pain from the wound to his shoulder.

"Evil is a faithful foe, but good does better best. With these words, I waste the warlocks evil zest!" Chris said wasting no time, Simon stood there for a second and realized what happened a second later he cried out in pain as his body exploded in flames.

"Wasn't that a spell that mom, Aunt Paige, and Aunt Phoebe made?" Wyatt asked.

"Slightly modified." Chris said. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted him. A warlock is a warlock no matter what. It's just in their blood to kill."

"He just wanted to help his family." Melinda said.

"You're not seriously defending him are you?" Chris asked.

"Of course not, he tried to kill me. I just feel kind of bad." she said. "Did Abigail get back?" Melinda said changing the subject. Chris turned to look at Wyatt, who avoided his glance. Chris smirked again, "Yeah she's back."

"That's good." Michael said cracking his neck.

"He really did a number on you didn't he?" Melinda said walking over to him; she tried to restrain a laugh. "Can't handle warlocks?"

"Oh shut up. He just caught me off guard, twice." Michael muttered.

Melinda smiled, "At least something good came out of all of this. You guys trust me now to handle myself." she walked over and put her arms around her brother's shoulders, having to get up on tiptoes in order to do so however.

"Yeah well you weren't letting up on that guy." Chris said.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side Mel." Wyatt laughed.

"Does this mean I get to go demon hunting with both of you now?" Melinda asked, there was a slightly pause.

"Don't count on it." Wyatt and Chris said in unison, the two of them orbed away causing Melinda to fall forward a little.

"That's not fair!" she called after them. Michael walked over and stood next to Melinda, he crossed his arms. "It's a start isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Aren't you afraid of me? I mean I did kick some ass tonight." she said nudging Michael. He smirked.

"I bet I could take you," he said. "I just don't want to. Don't want to hurt you and all."

"Oh yeah I'm sure." Melinda said with a laugh, she shoved Michael aside. He stumbled into the table, "Whatever helps you sleep at night." she said playfully.


	5. 1x05 Chris's Concerns

"If you would just listen to me, you'll understand why I—"

"I already told you Michael I don't care!" Melinda said cutting him off. "You didn't have the right to orb me out of there!"

The two continued arguing as they headed up to the attic were Wyatt and Chris were in the middle of making a few extra vanquishing potions just in case. Chris looked up as they came in, still talking loudly. "Is fighting all you two do?"

"No." Michael said, "Well, maybe. She's just so stubborn maybe you guys can talk some sense into her."

As if on cue Wyatt and Chris let out a scoff of laughter. Melinda rolled her eyes and crossed over to the couch and sat down. "So what is it this time? Mel I thought you went out." Wyatt asked throwing in a pinch of rosemary into the cauldron. Michael went to talk but Melinda overlapped him and launched into the story.

"I was out, with a few friends and we were heading to a late lunch after some shopping." she explained, "We're sitting there at this really cute diner downtown, just opened, kind of pricey but the atmosphere is great. Anyway, we're sitting there and I'm waiting for the salad to come when suddenly I'm orbed out. Was it me who orbed? No. Michael orbed me out because he felt there was a demon present."

"I was only looking out for your safety." Michael said trying to defend himself, "And besides, your friends were in the bathroom and no one else was looking. I was careful."

"How am I supposed to explain this to Helen and Joanie ?" Melinda said her voice was starting to rise again.

"Whoa! Hey! Both of you," Wyatt said. "I'm going to put an end to this before it even gets started again. Michael what you did could have exposed us all."

"See I told you." Melinda said cutting in with a matter of fact tone.

"But," Wyatt said over top of her, "But if you felt that there was a demon present it was smart to get Melinda out of there."

"Ha. Told you." Michael said with a smug grin. Melinda glared at him but remained quiet.

"Good. Great." Chris said, "Now that that's settled we have a potion to make."

"New demon?" Michael asked.

"When isn't there a new demon." Wyatt stated. "These are just incase some more demons come a knocking. I mean in the past few weeks we've seen more demons then in the months before. Of course that could be due to the fact that the Charmed Ones aren't around."

"Yeah but the they're still gutsy for showing their faces around the Charmed One's kids. Although it seems to be just us, I contacted Prue and Laura, they say everyone is okay no demons or anything unusual has happened to them." Chris said.

"It's just us?" Melinda shifted uncomfortably. "So someone really is after me."

"Or all of us." Wyatt said, hoping it would make his sister feel a little more comfortable. Although he wasn't sure how news of concentrated demon attacks on them alone was supposed to make her feel. "We can't be sure yet. But we told Prue and Laura to just stay put and call only if they needed us. We don't want to drag them into this if it has nothing to do with them all in the first place."

"I guess this begs the question, have you found out who the culprit is yet?" Michael asked; the prior argument seemed to be a lost subject to all of them at the moment.

"No, we haven't" Chris said sharply, realizing the tone he took Chris sighed and spoke again this time a little calmer and softer. "Sorry. No we haven't figured it out yet. For all we know it could be some warlock, demon, hell even a Darklighter. We don't have any information to narrow it down except it must be someone with big power, in order to hire those others to come after Melinda in the first place."

"So in other words the same information as usual." Melinda said. Chris turned his head in her direction he opened his mouth to say something but silenced himself.

"All we can do right now is to just be prepared for whatever may happen next." Wyatt corked a small potion vile and gently tossed it to Melinda. She caught the vile and looked it over for a few seconds. "Just be on your guard until we can figure this out."

Later that night at dinner Melinda couldn't help but notice how distant Chris was being. He was spaced out in the kitchen and added a half a cup of salt instead of sugar to the cake Melinda decided to make. Melinda and Wyatt watched as Chris sat there playing with his mashed potatoes, running his for through them, lifting them off the plate and then letting them splat back in place.

"Chris?" Wyatt said finally breaking the silence, "Are you going to eat those or just continue to do….that?"

"What?" Chris asked looking up.

"So are you guys ready for dessert?" Melinda asked, she got up from the table and hurried into the kitchen. She came back out a moment later holding a platter that seated a small round vanilla covered cake with a rose on the top corner.

"It's not the one that Chris poured the salt in is it?" Wyatt asked as Melinda set the cake on the table.

"No I threw that out and started over." Melinda said with a grin.

"Is there a reason to this cake?" Wyatt asked, Melinda cut and placed a slice onto a small plate and handed it over to him. He figured that there had to be a reason for Melinda's suddenly cheery mood and choice in dessert. She wasn't always so keen to bake, or cook. In fact she wasn't great at either which made Wyatt kind of weary about the cake with or without the salted batter.

"Does a sister need a reason to bake something special for her brothers?" she asked innocently. Chris took his offered slice and gave a half smile.

"Most of the time yes." he said. Melinda rolled her eyes, "No offense Melinda but you usually don't do something unless you want something in return."

"I do not." Melinda said defensively, okay so they had a point. Melinda found it easier to ask for something after doing something nice, and normally it worked, at least with her parents.

"Okay fine." she said, "I was wondering if maybe if I could go demon hunting with you guys next time. And before you shoot the idea down I want you two to listen okay? I'm 18 now and I have full control of my powers, well mostly." she muttered. "You saw me handle that warlock the other day, and I think it's high time I got out into the world and royally started kicking some demon ass!"

Wyatt and Chris each took a bite of the cake; they had each only chewed it a few times when they spit it out all over the table. Melinda took a small bite and immediately spit it out into a napkin. Her brother's worked on draining their glasses.

"I guess I threw out the wrong batter." Melinda muttered. "So much for dessert."

Wyatt took the cake out to the kitchen to throw away; Chris started to collect the plates. They never responded to Melinda's proposal, and she figured that they didn't intend to. She sighed and rested her head on the table trying not to lose her temper and snap. She hated when her brother's ignored what she had to say, they always did that even when they were younger. Wyatt was better then Chris at listening but lately it was like she was talking to a brick wall.

Chris set the plates and silverware into the sink and turned the water on. "I don't think we should let her go." he said. "Demon hunting. It's still too dangerous, I mean yeah she is capable of handling herself but if she's the target I don't want to risk it."

Wyatt noted how worried Chris sounded, "Chris I'm not about to argue against you. I think you're absolutely right, it'd be like handing her over and we can't do that."

"Wyatt, Chris can you come here for a minute?" Melinda called in from the other room. They stopped what they were doing and walked back into the dining room. To their surprise and horror they found a blonde haired demon holding Melinda, one hand covering her mouth and the other held an athame to her throat.

"Take one step and I kill her." the demon said in Melinda's voice, he cleared his throat. "Sorry about that, as I was saying. One step or even a thought about making a move and I'll slide this into her pretty throat."

"Who are you?" Wyatt asked making sure to stay quite still.

"Like I'm going to tell you my name. I'm not that stupid." the demon said, "Telling you my name will only make it easier for you to track me, nice try though big brother." he smirked evilly as he pushed the blade closer to Melinda's throat, she let out a muffled cry. The demon came out of nowhere, one minute Melinda was sitting at the table and the next thing she knew there was an athame to her throat and a hand around her mouth.

"Then tell us what you want." Chris said, he leaned forward a little the athame dug deeper and a trickle of blood ran down her neck.

"I got what I came for." the demon said, "I'll be leaving now."

"No you won't!" Michael orbed in next to the demon and grabbed the arm that held the athame and pulled it away from Melinda's neck. Michael twisted his arm forcing the demon to drop the athame; Wyatt and Chris took this opportunity to make their move. Wyatt ran to Melinda to get her out of the way, another demon with dark hair shimmered into the dining room. He made a move for Wyatt as Chris and Michael were occupied with the first demon. Sending a ball of fire at Wyatt who took the blow to his shoulder shoving Melinda out of the way.

The events in the following minute happened so fast it was almost hard to comprehend. The first demon sent Chris flying over the table and into the fireplace, turning his attention to Michael who was on the ground trying to recover from the last blow. The demon's friend was in full combat with Wyatt, he kept blocking each attack Wyatt sent at him. Melinda glanced around at everyone but noticed that Michael was in the most danger. The demon had picked up the athame and had a fireball ready in his other hand. He starred down at Michael with a sadistic grin on his face, without time to think Melinda rushed over to Michael's side and grabbed his arm. "No!" the next second the two of them had orbed away, leaving Wyatt and Chris behind with the two demons.

* * *

Michael and Melinda crashed to the ground. They looked at their surroundings, not recognizing anything around them. It seemed they were in some old abandoned apartment, the curtains were torn and tattered, the wallpaper hung half off the wall, cobwebs matted the ceiling and the rest of the woodwork, and a old dusty brown couch sat in the middle of the empty room. "Where are we?" Michael asked. "And what just happened?"

"I don't know." Melinda replied, she turned her head to Michael "I think I just orbed us out of the manor."

"You orbed us?" Michael repeated, "What do you mean you orbed us."

"He was about to kill you." Melinda said, "I had to do something."

"Melinda, I'm already dead." he said, "And that's not what I mean. I didn't know you had Whitelighter powers like your brothers. I mean they didn't tell me, and you sure as hell didn't."

"Well I don't have Whitelighter powers per say," she said, "I do but they kind of come and go."

Michael just starred at her; nothing she was saying was making any sense. He closed his eyes for a second and then opened them after taking a breath. Before he said another word he noticed the cut on her neck; reaching his hands out to heal her he cleared his throat and spoke.

"Thank you though." he said. "For getting us out of there."

"We have to go back," Melinda said keeping still until he finished healing the small wound, "Wyatt and Chris need our help."

"No. They'll be fine, besides they were after you and I think we're safe here. Wherever here is. Going back would only be giving the enemy what they want. Melinda," he hesitated as if trying to recall something. "You're dad he's—I mean he was a Whitelighter wasn't he? Leo?" Melinda looked semi surprised that Michael knew her dad's name, "I've met him a few times when he was just starting off as a Whitelighter."

"Ew, cause that's not a creepy thought." Melinda muttered with a shudder. Michael smiled for a second but it fell off his face and he continued onto his point.

"In all of the books I've read, and all of the rumors I've heard, the Charmed Ones Whitelighter Leo, and former Elder, fell from grace. This happened after Wyatt was born, and Chris. But before they had their third child, which would be you. Your brother's have Whitelighter abilities because they were born with Whitelighter blood and genes, but you couldn't have. Unless your mom—"

"My mom didn't cheat on my dad if that's what you're implying." Melinda snapped.

"No! Of course not, but Melinda it doesn't make sense that you have the ability to orb." Michael said.

"I know right?" she said, "I mean by all rights I shouldn't have this power, logically it just isn't possible. But yet here I am able to orb. I didn't always have this power though you know? Wyatt and Chris could use their Whitelighter abilities when they were babies, all of this kind of just started about two years ago."

Michael stopped her, "Are you saying that you gained Whitelighter powers?"

"I guess. I don't know." Melinda said, she got up and walked over to the couch and sat down, dust flew up around her. She waved her hand to clear the dust away from her face, "I was arguing with my parents, I had some bad grades in science and I wasn't allowed to go to Prom. It really made me mad, I mean the guy I had a crush on at the time had asked me and now I wasn't allowed to go. There was a lot of shouting back and forth, and I just remember thinking I didn't want to be there anymore, that I wanted to just go off to my room. And the next thing I know I'm standing in my room, I had orbed there." Melinda paused only for a second to take a breath,

"Mom and Dad thought Wyatt or Chris had done it, but they weren't home at the time, and I mean why would they orb me to my room? I tried to orb again, but I couldn't no matter how hard I tried. Nothing like that happened again till a couple months ago, I was just messing around and thinking how I wanted to go to the mall but Mom and Dad wouldn't let me use their car. I sat in my room really concentrating on the mall and how much I wanted this jacket. Again I find myself standing inside the dressing room of the store that had the jacket." she took another breath,

"Since then I've been able to orb places, but I have to concentrate really hard, and I know that's not normal. I can't orb objects or anything like that. I just have the power to orb." Melinda waited for Michael to say something; he finally sat down on the old couch next to Melinda. "Wyatt and Chris both tried going Up There to talk to the Elders, but they wouldn't reveal anything to them. So, we just decided to try and accept that I have the power to orb. Well, sort of have the power. I noticed that when I'm really upset I can orb normally, without having to concentrate. Like the Prom deal, and then back in the manor. I didn't want you to get hurt."

Michael smirked, "Thanks, again. Look, maybe I could go up and talk to the Elders the next chance I get. But maybe," he said, "maybe it's your destiny."

"To become a Whitelighter? Why? I mean Wyatt can orb and heal, and Chris can orb. Isn't three Whitelighter hybrids a little overkill for one family?" Melinda said, there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"I'm being serious Melinda." Michael said, "What if you were given these powers because somewhere along the line you'll need them?"

"But Wyatt and Chris--"

"I know you don't want to hear this but, maybe in the future they won't be there for some reason or other. They won't be there and maybe it'll fall on you to do whatever it is you were given these powers for."

Melinda didn't like hearing or thinking that her brothers wouldn't be around in the future, at least in the near future. She shook her head denying the idea at first. "You don't know what you're talking about. Wyatt and Chris are so strong, no demon can get the best of them."

* * *

"I thought the sons of the Charmed Ones would be stronger then this!" the demon laughed, both Wyatt and Chris stood back trying to catch their breath. It was clear that these two demons were upper class, and pretty powerful at that. They were defiantly giving Wyatt and Chris a run for their powers. _They must have gotten a little extra power boost from something or someone._ Wyatt thought, he and Chris looked at each other for a second as the two demons stood side by side, they smirked evilly and let two fire balls form in each of their hands giving a total of four. "I must say I am disappointed." the demon with blonde hair said, "Where did your pretty little sister go?" he sniffed the air, "She doesn't seem to be in this house anywhere."

With a sudden jester of his hand Chris sent the table from the front hall flying into the backs of the blonde demon's pal, flowers pictures and all. He lurched forward, the flames from his hands disappeared as he fell to the ground. This distracted the blonde demon for a second, but he still let the two fireballs fly at Wyatt. Wyatt dropped to the ground as they came speeding at his head. Chris ran over and grabbed the blonde demon by the arm dragging him back into the front hall from the dining room and slammed him hard into the wall Chris's hand now over the demon's throat. "What do you want with Melinda!"

The blonde demon seemed pleasantly shocked by this sudden and unexpected move by the younger of the charmed sons, but a smile grew on his face and he let out a tiny laugh.

"Do you really think I'll answer any question you have?"

Chris slammed the demon back into the wall again, he flinched in pain but continued to smile. "That hurt a little."

"Chris?" Wyatt came into the front hall stepping over the unconscious demon.

"I'm going to ask one more time. Why are you after Melinda?" Chris said through gritted teeth.

"You're not exactly the smart one are you?" the demon said, his eyes darted away from Chris's for a split second. Chris noticed and his head jerked over to Wyatt,

"Wyatt!"

Wyatt turned around to see an athame soaring at him from out of nowhere. He quickly orbed out of the way and the athame stuck into the wood work in the door way. This little distraction gave the blonde demon a chance to push Chris off of him and shimmer away over to his friend and then shimmered out of sight again taking the unconscious demon with him.

"Damn it!" Chris shouted hitting the wall. Wyatt orbed back next to his brother and let out a heavy sigh.

"We'll get them don't worry Chris. Hey, Michael!" Wyatt called out. A second later Michael and Melinda orbed in onto the staircase. "Where were you guys?"

"I'm not sure." Michael replied. "What do you mean, where did you orb to?"

"Actually." Melinda said walking down the remaining three or four steps, "I orbed him, well us really. I wasn't thinking of anyplace in particular I just wanted to get somewhere safe and we ended up in this old abandoned apartment."

"Wait a second. Rewind to the part where you orbed." Wyatt asked. Chris remained silent, still brooding away that the demons escaped. "You orbed without having to concentrate?"

Melinda smiled weakly, "Yeah it just kind of happened. I didn't mean to, and I promise it won't happen again." she added with haste.

Wyatt crossed his arms and grinned, "You're not in trouble or anything. I'm just impressed that's all. It means your whitelighter powers are starting to come in."

Melinda felt like a great weight was lifted off her shoulders. She had been getting into so much trouble the past couple weeks that she was expecting to get scolded for orbing or something. She looked around and saw the mess, not so unusual, "So did you get the demons?"

* * *

"I'm sorry we failed you my lord." the blonde demon and his dark haired friend bowed their heads. They stood inside just one of many caves and caverns in the vast underworld. A wall of flames separated the two servants from their master. They weren't able to make out his face but his silhouette could be seen, the two had yet to come face to face with their lord but no had been allowed beyond the wall of fire.

"No." said their lord, "You did not fail me Cullen." his voice was deep and hollow and echoed above the crackle of the flames. "You did what you were meant to. The results proved exactly what I had hoped."

The blonde demon, known as Cullen, looked up and blinked. "I don't understand."

"You don't have to. You and Jaren did very well. And now we are ready for the next step in the plan. It won't be long now until they are ready. My dream will become a reality."

The dark haired demon, known as Jaren, looked over to Cullen for a second he seemed to want to say something but the look given by Cullen suggested that he better keep his mouth shut if he wanted to keep his life. Cullen guessed that Jaren was about to make a smartass remark to the extent that 'Demon's don't dream.', that's just how Jaren was. Cullen stood up straight and looked back at the his lord and master.

"My brother and I are ready for whatever you command of us next my lord." Cullen said.

"I find Cullen, that the Charmed Ones are due home soon. I can't have that, and I need you to make sure that there isn't a family reunion."

A twisted smile grew on both Cullen and Jaren's faces, "As you wish my lord." they each said with a deep bow and they shimmered out of the cave.

* * *

"I almost got him to talk." Chris said pacing back and forth in the attic. Melinda sat on the couch with her legs crossed and an pillow in her lap. She was watching Chris go back and forth, nearly going cross eyed as he made sharp turns. Michael had gone Up There to check to see if the elders knew anything about the two demons who attacked while Wyatt was busy thumbing through the Book of Shadows. "I was this close and he gets away. Unbelievable!"

"Okay Chris can you sit down you're going to make me lose my dinner." Melinda said placing her hand over her stomach.

"And you're getting on my nerves." Wyatt said glancing up from the book for a second. Chris stopped and shot Wyatt a look but he didn't care to glance away from the book to catch it. He walked over and sat down next to Melinda, he reached over and snatched the pillow from her. Her mouth dropped open for a second and smacked him in the arm for taking it. Wyatt groaned and slammed the book shut.

"It's official there is nothing about those two in the Book of Shadows. I've looked three times over now, there isn't anything in there about them They have to be working for someone bigger, which makes me worry."

"Let's hope Michael can get something form the elders." Melinda said.

"Don't count on it." Chris muttered, "The thing that really doesn't make sense to me is why wouldn't he have killed you, or taken you when he had the chance? You called us, I mean he called us into the dining room and showed you off like a prize."

"You'd rather he killed me?" asked Melinda.

"That's not what I meant."

"No I understand what Chris is saying. It was like he didn't want to hurt you, or he didn't want to hurt you yet. He wanted to bring it to our attention first, which still makes absolutely no sense at all." Wyatt said leaning forward on the stand that held the book. White-blue orbs filled his peripheral vision, Michael stood next to him looking rather disappointed.

"What did you find out?" Chris asked eagerly.

Michael took a deep breath as if he was about to say something with great meaning. "Nothing." he said. Everyone looked at him blankly, "The elder's don't know who they were or who in the underworld might even be after Melinda. I tried to get more information out of them, and they were actually kind of rude about it all."

"Are they hiding something?" Melinda asked.

"What would the Elders have to hide?" Wyatt wondered aloud.

"Nothing good I can tell you that." Chris said, he got to his feet and tossed the pillow back at Melinda landing in her lap. They watched Chris as his crossed the attic and left down the stairs more than likely heading for his and Wyatt's room.

"What got his orbs in a bundle?" Michael muttered.

"He's worried about his sister." Wyatt said with a tiny smirk.

"It took him 18 years to finally act like he cares." Melinda rolled her eyes. It was true that Chris was the one who picked on her the most when they were growing up, but Melinda knew he did care about her. It was just the first time she had seen him behave this way, then again this was the first time that demons and warlocks proved to be out to get her.


End file.
